by Brad Rose

I started Intransitive back when I was in college in Florida, in 1997. Originally, the label began in order to self-publish my first CD, “Stone Blind”. I used that CD as a way of introducing myself to folks like Frans de Waard and Christian Renou (who was then active with his project, Brume), sending it around to the artists I held in highest regard and then to pretty much anyone who put their contact address somewhere on their record. I missed the cassette network days of the early 80s to mid-90s… but I read about it, and was attracted to the idea of trading music through the mail and getting feedback from contemporaries who lived far away. This was before the internet was as ubiquitous as it is now.

At the same time, my old friend Frog, who had (maybe still has?) a noise project called The Amazing Mr. Slug, had a 7” out on a short-lived Florida label that pressed a few hundred copies before giving up on the whole label idea and moving away, and giving all the records to Frog. I offered to take it on as my own, and re-christened it the first Intransitive release. Richard Chartier and I were in contact at the time, he designed the cover of my CD… since he was also getting ready to have his first album out, he just did it on Intransitive… and pretty quickly, a label with multiple releases was born. I asked Frans and Christian to record albums for me, and to my surprise and delight, they did (real good ones, too). Frans introduced me to his friend Roel Meelkop, and so on. A decade later, here I still am.

In any case, I’ve always been involved in music is some way. When I was in high school, I worked at a record shop. Then in college, I started booking shows. Then I started the label, moved to Boston, and continued doing all of those things plus being more active in making music… to me, it’s all aspects of the same impulse to contribute to and promote the thing that I love.

Heh, well… as with most decisions made when one is an excited 20-year-old, it seemed a lot better at the time. I was an English major, and somewhere in my studies I came across the definition of “intransitive” as being a form of verb that has no object… an action that doesn’t relate to any thing doing the action. There was the old Lenny Bruce routine (heard, in somewhat garbled form, at the beginning of my 2CD compilation “Variious”) called “To Come”, where “to” is a preposition and “come” is a verb intransitive. I liked that idea, so I took it as my label’s name.

My taste, as you could probably guess, runs toward the non-referential… I prefer to avoid easy signifiers, like an image on an album cover that tells you how you’re supposed to understand the music. Or a label or band name that clearly spells out what genre you’re going to get when you put on a record. Intransitive Recordings refer only to themselves, y’know? I’m stuck with it now, but it seems alright.

Many things! First of all, I practically breathe records and CDs… seriously, my collection is disgustingly large. I have tapes, CDs, CDrs, and vinyl in every room of my apartment, including hallways. I amass records just by waking up. But I’m genuinely excited about music, and always have my ears open for some new artist whose work I’m going to enjoy.

Running a label is a great way to start a dialogue with like-minded people. My tastes are on display in my catalog, and I am often out at shows, or hosting shows here in Boston, emailing with people, meeting friends of friends who make music, and swapping stuff in the mail. So people tend to find me. I like that. My label is a manifestation of my enthusiasm for electronic and experimental-type music, which keeps me going all the time.

Hmm… it’s all pretty hard. But I’d rather not dwell on that. Let the CDs appear without letting on what’s happening behind the curtain. Suffice it to say that I enjoy a challenge, and it’s worth all the work that it takes.

That’s a tough question, because I’ve published work by my favorites already: Nerve Net Noise, Lethe, nmperign, Jason Lescalleet, Brendan Murray, Kapotte Muziek, Roel Meelkop, Toshiya Tsunoda, Lionel Marchetti… I’m open to publishing just about anything these guys want me to, at any time. In fact, new stuff by Toshiya, Brendan, Lionel, and Lethe is already planned.

But if I have to pick someone I haven’t worked with before, it’d be Small Cruel Party. That guy is amazing. Luckily, Harbinger (a terrific label out of Nottingham) is doing a 3xCD retrospective, reissuing all of his 90s vinyl. I truly cannot wait.

A demo is very unlikely to result in an Intransitive release. I plan my release schedule a year or more out, and generally have long-range plans for what I want to do and in what order. It’s such a bummer to get form letters in the mail: “Dear Sir or Madam, here is my CDr which I would like you to publish on your label”. That just tells me that this artist sent out tons of CDrs to tons of labels, and didn’t even bother to find out what my name is… which isn’t hard, my name is easy to track down if you’re looking for info on Intransitive. When I get a demo that looks like a mass mailing, I might just throw it out at the post office.

However, I do like to hear new music and meet new artists, and have heard some great stuff from people who’ve sent me unsolicited demos. An email saying hello, an introduction, let me know you’re sending me something… sure, cool!

Next up is a reissue of an old out-of-print CD I did many years ago, Lionel Marchetti “Knud un Nom du Serpent (L’Cercle des Entrailles)”, then a new CD by Jim Haynes, and a kind of “best of” by Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bar. After that, I’ll have collaborative albums by Toshiya Tsunoda & Haco, and Kuwayama Kiyoharu (aka Lethe) & Chris Corsano.

Oh hell… hm, I have no idea! I hear so much! How about a general list of artists and labels and things that I’ve been into lately: Steely Dan (especially “Countdown to Ecstasy” and “The Royal Scam”), Andrew Chalk (his Faraway Press label has yet to do me wrong), Hazard (the LP/CD set on Touch), Peter Wright (particularly the “Pariahs Sing Om” 3xCD on Last Visible Dog), Gianluca Becuzzi & Fabio Orso “Wildflowers Under the Sofa” (also on LVD… this one grew on me after a few listens, now I find myself listening to it several times in a row), The Dead Machines, Francisco Lopez’ CD on Anoema (one of his best yet!), Yui Onodero “Suisei” CD on and/OAR (a quality label), Hijo Kaidan “The Ferocity of Practical Life” 10” (not a new release at all, but one that’s recently taken root for me), the Asmus Tietchens reissue program that Die Stadt is doing quite a good job with, Jim Haynes “Telegraphy By the Sea” (brilliant!), Borbetomagus (many records… I listen to these guys a lot), The Urinals “Negative Capability” CD (reissue on Warning Label, another thing I listen to over and over, often playing a song or two repeatedly for a couple of days), Monos “Landscapes” (I really dig most of what Colin Potter does), Glass Organ’s CD on Students of Decay (a fine label, who I’m proud to say will soon be publishing the first CD by my group Skeletons Out), Seht (many things, all of ’em good), the Diagram Brothers reissue CD on LTM, The Fire Engines “Hungry Beat” reissue CD on Acute, Clandestine Blaze (and most things on the Northern Heritage label), Mawja’s CD on Chloe, Walter Marchetti’s piano music on Alga Marghen, Bhob Rainey & Ralf Wehowsky’s positively jaw-dropping CD on Sedimental, Cloama “Revisionist Knowledge” CD on Freak Animal, Sick Llama tapes and CDrs….. that’s probably enough.

The key to running a label is to never give up. When it seems impossible to continue, keep doing it anyway. Stick to your idea, and make exactly the records that you think ought to exist. Everything else works itself out, eventually.

Oh, and there isn’t a place in the world that’s better than Boston. That’s not really advice, though… just a statement of fact. Do with it what you wish.